Most of us take our smartphone's
"unlimited" 3G data plans for granted. We pay the $30 data
fee (in addition to the charge for monthly minutes) and surf away with
little regard for data overage charges. We do this because using a
smartphone in normal day-to-day duties rarely would consume gigabytes
of data within a month which would tip off wireless providers like
AT&T and Verizon.

Those who tether, however, be it
through unauthorized
means like jailbreaking on the iPhone or through officially
sanctioned tethering data plans, can find it easy to consume
gigabytes worth of data in a month. This comes from people tethering
their notebooks and other internet-capable devices to the phone which
make sucking down copious amounts of data easy.

With this in mind, Verizon appears to
be taking
a preemptive step to curb users who consume large amounts of
data. According to the Financial Times, Verizon wants to put
in place a tiered pricing strategy for LTE (4G) data plans. What
makes this move even more puzzling to potential customers is that
Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam recently stated that the cost of
carrying 1MB of data over its upcoming LTE wireless network will be
"half to one-third the cost" of Verizon's existing EVDO
network.

What is even more interesting is that
Lowell stated, “I expect people will have four or five or perhaps
even more devices they will connect to the network” -- but he went
on to say that these same customers would prefer to buy "buckets"
of data by the MB for this usage scenario.

For most people connecting four or more
devices, conventional wisdom would say that they would want an
unlimited plan to avoid overage charges; but perhaps Lowell knows
something about Verizon customers that we don't.

Lowell went on to add that his company
will have three to five handsets next year that will work on its LTE
data networks. Verizon Wireless also expects to switch over to LTE
voice traffic by 2012.

Sprint, which is offering competing 4G
data coverage via WiMAX, is launching its HTC
EVO 4G smartphone early next month. That phone will come with
attached with an unlimited 4G data plan, albeit with a $10 higher
price tag (per month) than what most customers are used to for their
current 3G data plans.

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Screw Verizon, honestly, and screw limmited data plans and price teirs. not just for wireless but for all internet...part of why i couldnt live in AUS, I would constantly be needing to buy more bandwidth...

Internet access is just like any other utility. They distribute a scarce resource.

Pretty sure you can't get an 'unlimited' monthly fee for water, electricity, or natural gas. They have been able to offer unlimited before because they had the capacity and few users took advantage of it. Now with Youtube, Hulu, and Netflix a large number of users can really rack up the bandwidth and potentially slow the entire network down.

Your argument would be true if an internet connection was actually like a utility. Then you would only pay for what you use and not even sign up for a "plan." You get a set price per MB and that's it.

But that is not the case, and if you sign up for 2GB and only use 1GB, oh well you just wasted some money. And worse, if you use 3GB you get charged crazy overages. Your price doesn't rise if you use "too much" water, electricity, or natural gas.

Actually, in Southern California, we have a tiered pricing. The more you use, the higher the price. Electricity prices start at .12 and climb to .38 per KWatt for anyone using an airconditioner during the summer. Use 2x as much power, and your bill ends up 3x-4x higher.

Where I live you pay a 'connect fee' plus usage for water, gas, and electricity. So if you don't use ANYTHING you still pay a fair amount to have service. It will be something similar for megabytes. The first increment costs a lot, and additional quantities are cheaper. They do this to avoid using the words 'connect fee'.

Actually, in Southern California, we have a tiered pricing. The more you use, the higher the price. Electricity prices start at .12 and climb to .38 per KWatt for anyone using an airconditioner during the summer.

quote: Your argument would be true if an internet connection was actually like a utility. Then you would only pay for what you use and not even sign up for a "plan." You get a set price per MB and that's it.

There are providers now in Australia that are providing "Pay as you go" plans for the up-coming National broadband network, pay $1 and get 1gb of data, or $100 for $100gb and so on. - So you could end up paying $1 a month for your internet connection, or $100. - Good idea for light users, as it becomes a very cheap always-on connection.

However, they still do have plans suited to larger download users, with zero extra costs involved, where you get speed reduced to 64kbps/128kbps/256kbps/512kbps+ once you reach your monthly download limit (Speed caps depend on the ISP you are with, what DSLAM you are on, and of course what plan).

It's interesting where the US Internet connections are heading, they are heading towards a limited download system, while we are shifting towards unlimited. (Perhaps you guys lack decent competition?)

Yeah, there's little competition and little regulation here. I don't know if it's any better there since I know nothing about it, but here most people have either zero, one, or two real broadband options (DSL and/or cable...or nothing).

Some company's DSL offerings are actually (to me) very reasonably priced, and essentially unlimited. Cable from Comcast though is $60/month, which to me is way too high-although I guess still reasonable compared to what cell phone companies charge for pathetic 5GB plans!

Regarding coverage-everywhere I've been, Sprint's at least as good as Verizon, and neither is as good as U.S. Cellular. AT&T is laughably bad, and pretty much everything but USCC goes down the drain if you leave the more populated areas. I'm not sure how T-Mobile is one way or the other here, as USCC and Sprint were the big too, followed by Verizon now, and to a lesser extent AT&T just because of the iPhone mostly.